Brought Back
by Fayrandothneil
Summary: Team Dojo after the disaster that Bedlam created ten years ago. What had happened to all of them, and will they be able to find Ol'skool? And what is this new threat that has risen in Progress City?
1. Chapter 1

**_I've been writing these things out like crazy lately! Maybe it's just all of the stories I had remembered from the past come back to haunt me? I don't know, I just know I got another one out and I hope to finish it. _**

* * *

**_Chapter 1—_**

Brandon Gates, also known as Burn to his closest friends, sat brooding in his office.

_Who knew I would eventually end up in a monkey suit? _he thought to himself as he spun around in his chair and looked out the expansive window into Celestial City, a close neighbor of his home town Progress City. _Couldn't have been ten years already, could it?_

Ten years to the day actually, that was what had gotten him thinking. Back to the good old days when he was a courier for Dojo Deliveries, when he had been the happiest. When Ol'skool disappeared with Bedlam, and the machine with them, Dojo had been assigned to help deliver various things across the rampaged city. They had spent an exhaustive three months going all over town trying to help people. Unfortunately, after that, they had to go their separate ways. They couldn't keep the team running by themselves, plus their parents wouldn't have it either. They had to go back to their original lives.

Sarah was back with her parents—with Bedlam gone, they had nothing to fear anymore so they could be a family again—Fizz went with her family as well. Loogie had an uncle that he stayed with and Burn lived with his father, his mother having been deceased for a number of years. Ed—no one knew what happened to Ed. He had nowhere to go and they had been wracking their brains for a way to make things work, but he had gone before they could do anything about it.

It was probably for the best, Burn hadn't spoken with any of the Dojo crew ever since they broke apart. Ed would have tried his best to keep them together—Burn knew he would have since it was the only family he had ever known—and it wouldn't have worked out anyway. Fizz had been talking to her parents into taking Ed with them, but Ed had been gone by the time her parents agreed to it. Fizz was heartbroken; she and Ed had been close from the beginning, almost like a real brother and sister, so it was almost like losing a part of herself almost when he had disappeared.

Burn worried about his friend when his mind managed to wonder to him. Ed hadn't very good on his own before, so it was stressful for him to think Ed could have survived this long on his own. He wanted to do something about it, try and find him, but Ed could cover his tracks as if he wasn't there. Burn knew that Ed gave off a massive energy signature wherever he went, but Ed had managed to cover it up somehow. It was then that Burn knew that one of two things had happened to him: one—he was dead; two—he wanted to stay hidden.

Burn had given up the search when he realized this. Ed was odd sometimes, but he had his reasons and Burn knew they were good ones. For some reason, Burn knew that Ed wasn't dead. He knew his friend was stronger than that, he had to be since he was designed to be that way. Maybe Ed had gone back to Bedlam's lair to try and get his Items back? That sounded like a very Ed-thing to do. Ed could be looking for the answers to the mystery that was himself, or he could be looking for Ol'skool and the machine, or it was all three.

Whatever the reason, Burn knew Ed wasn't dead, but that didn't stop him from worrying about the whole thing.

The others had turned out well for themselves though. Burn tried to keep in touch over the years and found out what his friends were doing. Fizz had become quite the engineer and worked for a company right there in Celestial. Her name was scribbled on every piece of hardware that had anything to do with speed. Loogie was, to everyone's surprise, a Professor at Crumble University, which was almost halfway around the world in another country. He taught psychology, himself having a double personality that was still emitted through the ever helpful Dr. Pinch. Deets was low-key on the popularity radar, but she wasn't completely undetectable. She lived a quiet life with her inventor parents, herself being a very successful biologist. Together, the family strived to find ways to protect the dying wildlife and horticulture throughout the world. Burn himself had taken over his father's business and was now the head of a very large company that invested in everything. In fact, he owned the company that Fizz worked for, but they had never come face-to-face because of work. He managed to help fund Deets's work and Loogie was a personal interest that was mentioned in passing from fellow workers and board-members.

Ed was the only one that was unknown.

Burn sighed heavily and looked at the picture of his wife and three-year-old son.

_That is in the past. No need to be worrying about it now. If Ed wanted help, he would have asked for it. We all just want to forget . . . there's nothing we could do for Ol'skool now anyway. _

Deep in his heart, he knew that wasn't true, but he had a family to think of and his past couldn't drag him down. His wife had no idea of his past and he wanted to keep it that way.

Everything was buried and it would stay buried, like it was suppose to.

* * *

Francis Johnson was working late in her lab, again. It was customary for her to do so when her mind was on something that took up every waking thought.

_Ten years already, _she thought in awe, and at the same time, dread. _I wonder if they even remember me? _

Of course that was a stupid question. What they had been through together couldn't be easily forgotten. She regretted not doing more for Ol'skool, even when Ed pushed the idea into her head that they could possibly find him. Ed had shared a secret with her—actually it was a theory of his—that, possibly, there might be other places like what Ol'skool had uncovered before to help them figure out more about this mystery. She had so wanted to help him, but her parents were very overbearing and she had been convinced that Ol'skool wasn't coming back. She still believed it, even if a small part of her denied it.

When the team broke up, she had been depressed. That Dojo had been a real family for her, and then she had to return to her normal life—but you can't change the past, and you can't change what the past had altered. Her adventures with Ed and the Dojo team had altered her immensely and she couldn't find the desire to go back to her old life—it was almost an impossibility. She had acted out the part for her parents, and when she was alone, she tried to find Ed. She knew his signature was huge, but she couldn't find it once it blipped off the map for good. She had managed to find it once before it was gone forever, but it only lead her to a dead end in Sector 9 and she hated that place.

She didn't know whether to believe that Ed was dead or alive. She liked to believe that he was still living, but she couldn't be sure. She needed hard evidence for something to believe in it, and all of the evidence said that Ed was gone. What troubled her though was why he had left them. He could have come and stayed with her family, but obviously he hadn't wanted to. It bothered her for years why he had run, why none of the others decided to keep in touch. It felt so wrong to leave her friends out on a limb like that, especially Ed. He had no one other than them, and they had let him down.

The phone rang, startling her out of her thoughts. She picked it up quickly and listened to the person on the other line spill before she had a chance to say much. The news was exciting for her, she nearly jumped out of her chair and squealed in delight.

The Gates Company wanted to use her new excavating bots for a dig in the Sector 9 area of Progress City. It was a big contract, one that could help improve her career and her reputation by a skyrocketing amount. She was so excited about it that she didn't realize her thoughts had been on Sector 9 just a moment ago.

* * *

Sarah Carter walked down the street, looking around the park in Progress City as the moon rose high over her head, bathing the scenery in a shimmery silver. This was the last piece of green in Progress City, and they wanted to tear it down too. It was sickening really. These trees had almost gotten wasted by that attack ten years ago and now they just wanted to do away with it even after all of the money they put in to help save it.

However, her thoughts weren't on that now. It was on that fateful day, ten years ago, when Ol'skool and a newly designed Bedlam disappeared with no way of tracing them. Ed had been crushed that Ol'skool was gone and he wanted to desperately to find him and fix his mistake. Deets had tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that he couldn't have known that Ol'skool would risk his hide for the rest of them. Ed still wasn't convinced about it. Deets always felt like that was the reason why he left. Because the rest of them believed that Ol'skool was most likely dead, and Ed believed otherwise. It was never the splitting up, Ed knew that they wouldn't abandon him, it was the lack of faith that they had in him and in themselves that they could find Ol'skool.

"Ed why did you have to go?" she asked the wind as it blew her long hair around her face.

When the team broke up, she went back to her parents. For a while, she was happy to be just Sarah again, but she missed being Deets. She missed her friends, and she missed the Dojo. They had been so in harmony and when they split up, well, it felt so out of harmony. Deets had made the best of her life after the attack, but she wished that Ed could have been there. She worried about him constantly, knowing that he wasn't dead. She just couldn't believe that. Progress would be flattened before Ed gave into anything. He was stubborn and brave that way.

A small smile came on her face as she remembered his attitude towards danger, always leaping into it head first. He pulled off some crazy stunts before, almost breaking his neck sometimes, but he always walked it off with a shrug as if it was no big deal. She missed that.

Her phone rang in her pocket and her brain shifted gears as she answered it. Her mother was on the other end, telling her about the dig in Sector 9 that was to take place in a few days. Deets was to be the representative of their program and make sure that what they were doing wasn't disturbing the wildlife in the sector. There was hardly any wildlife there, but she agreed. Maybe they would unknowingly stumble onto something anyway. It was worth a shot.

* * *

Lance Caput looked out his hotel window and watched as Progress City started to wake up with the sun. Cars were zooming by already, making the lightshow even more riveting as the sun slowly came up and shined its rays on the reflective surfaces of the buildings. The ever present Dr. Pinch interjected something about pudding and solar panels as he slowly began to wake up. Lance had long since been awake. He could hardly wait to see what had changed in the years he had left Progress.

He missed his friends and he was hoping to locate them to catch up. Burn was easy enough to find, his face was on nearly every billboard as he had come back into the city limits. Lance highly doubted that he could see Burn right away, but maybe if he caught the guy as he was walking out of his office building?

"Hey, turn on the radio!" Dr. Pinch told him, shouting hit host out of his thoughts. "I want to know what's going on!"

"Right away buddy!" Lance said with his trademark goofy grin.

He turned the device on and at once had a plan in his mind. DJ Dive was still announcing for the city and said that the excavating in Sector 9 would start that day. Loogie wanted to go back there, to try and find something—mainly Ed.

Loogie knew that Ed had liked Sector 9 for some strange reason and he knew that Ed would have run to there. Unfortunately, he never had the time to go and look for his friend, but he did now. After all, this was his summer vacation, he could do as he pleased with it. He told his idea to Dr. Pinch and the puppet readily agreed.

To be completely honest, the catfish missed Ed as well. He and Loogie were different and Ed had understood different. He might have questioned their actions in the past, but even Dr. Pinch had to agree that some of the things they had done in the past were a little, eccentric—for lack of a better word—but Ed never judged them off of face value and tried to even justify their actions against the ever short patients of Burn.

When he had gone and left them, Loogie thought it was just to get his mind off of things and that he would come back, but he never did. Loogie had tried to think of what Ed would do, he was good at getting into people's heads for some reason, but had failed to come up with anything helpful.

"You really think Ed will be there?" Dr. Pinch asked as they walked out of the hotel.

"Maybe," Loogie said, "I'm sure we'll find something. We never left Sector 9 without something happening to Ed."

"True, and hopefully, history will repeat and not let us down."

"Well, we don't want history to completely repeat," Loogie interjected. "I can do without the Bedlam thing."

The puppet shivered and they continued on in silence as they made their way to the dig sight in Sector 9.

* * *

**_What will they find? You'll have to fave and find out! _**


	2. Chapter 2

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I think it's a little choppy, but I just couldn't wait to start the next chapter! It is going to be so cool and mind-blowing that no one will guess what happens next! Go ahead I dare you! (insert evil laughter here)

* * *

_**Chapter 2—**_

Sector 9—a garbage dump in every sense of the word. It had been abandoned for years, though no one really knew why. It was a cursed fantasy land for kids and a waste in tax money for property owners—that was all anyone really knew about the mysterious area. Sector 9 was also known to be the hot spots for many of the unusual things that happened in Progress City, though nothing much had happened within the past ten years . . . until now.

It had been some idiot that had decided to stash his trash here since the pay for garbage men was incredibly high today, and he stumbled upon a weak spot on the ground, almost going into the depths of the world and disappearing from sight. He had called the local authorities, who in turn called the city—since no one else owned it—and told them to clean up the mess or else they would be in big trouble. The city called their people, one thing led to another, and now they were excavating Sector 9 of its secrets at last.

The man in charge, oddly enough, was Deets's fiancé, Richard Plaine. The engineer in charge was Fizz with her new bots. Deets would be the leading scientist if they found anything, and Burn was the money to back up the project, although he wouldn't be joining them in person.

The girls' reunion was filled with laughter, disbelief, and many squeals of delight from each. They had been totally surprised by each other and were ecstatic about working together again. They knew that this wasn't the place to catch up on the last couple of years, so they made lunch plans and decided to get right down to business.

"So, what kind of bots do you have for us today Ms. Johnson?" Rick asked, having been present during the whole exchange and been introduced to Fizz.

"New models that are guaranteed to clear three miles worth of dirt in less than six hours," Fizz boasted proudly as she led them into the temporary hangar that had been set up on sight. "The real name is too long and technical, so I just call them dig bots."

"Creative," Deets said as she looked at the giant machine before them.

It looked like a box with many extendable claws and interchangeable parts with a round disk on the top that served for a head. Deets couldn't start to imagine the work and circuitry that it took to make this thing work.

"So, this is the first time you'll be using them?" Rick asked Fizz.

"Outside the testing field, yes," Fizz answered, "but everything went well with every test and scenario that we threw at it, so we shouldn't have any trouble."

"That's what I like to hear," the dark haired man nodded with apparent approval. "Why didn't I meet her sooner Sarah? She's an absolute charmer."

"Flirting with one of my best friends?" Deets asked him to throw him off of his question. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Rick only chuckled at the tease.

"Well, we still have a few things to go over before we start digging this afternoon, so why don't you ladies go out and have an early lunch? It will give you time to catch up and I'll call you when we're ready."

"Sounds good dear," Deets pecked him on the cheek as she and Fizz left.

* * *

"He seems nice," Fizz commented as they walked down one of Progress's many store-filled streets.

"He is," Deets said, looking in the window of a store as they slowly walked by.

"But, he's no Ed," Fizz said after it was clear Deets wasn't going to say anything else.

"There is no one like Ed," Deets smiled at her slightly smaller friend, "but yes, he is no Ed."

"Did you tell him about him? About your past?"

"No, and he doesn't need to know because he is never going to find out or ask about it," Deets was certain about this. "Besides, we were teenagers, he wouldn't hold that against me."

"No, but you still have feelings for Ed, don't you?"

"I'm not sure anymore," Deets rubbed her eyes tiredly. "If Ed had wanted anything to happen between us he would have stuck around, and I was tired of waiting for him, so I moved on."

Fizz nodded in understanding and the two walked around in silence.

"Do you think that what we'll find in Sector 9 will connect with Ed in some way?" Fizz asked, unable to hold the question back any longer.

"Most likely, almost everything that had to do with Ed came out of Sector 9," Deets nodded as they entered the outdoor setting of her favorite eating establishment.

"Then will you still hold your past back from Rick?"

"I probably shouldn't, that's why I'm hoping to find something before he does."

The waiter-bot came up and handed them menus and they selected what to drink. When the bot was safely out of hearing, they went on.

"Do you think we'll find Ed there?" it was Deets who had asked this time.

"Maybe we'll find a clue," Fizz said optimistically, "but he has stayed hidden pretty well these past years."

"I have so many questions for him. I want to know why he left," Deets sounded just a bit angry now.

"Me too," Fizz nodded, "but we got to find him first, then we can strangle him."

The girls laughed lightly and picked up their menus to scan what they wanted, only a voice perked their interest first.

"Hey girls, no time no see!"

"Loogie!" Deets said, surprised and pleased at the same time. "What are you doing back in Progress?"

"Vacation," Dr. Pinch provided the answer.

"We were just about to go to the dig sight in Sector 9 actually," Loogie said.

"Really? We're working on it," Fizz said. "Why don't you have lunch with us and we'll all go back together."

Loogie took a proffered chair eagerly.

"Who's buying?" he asked quickly.

"I am," Deets raised her hand, "don't overdo it Loogie, I mean it."

Loogie gave a rather funny salute and shared the menu with Fizz. He knew what he wanted in less than thirty seconds—everything in the dessert category.

The rest of lunch had been spent in catching up over the years they had stayed out of touch. Needless to say, the girls were shocked and a little disbelieving when Loogie told them his profession. Deets got the call soon after they were finished and they ran back to the dig sight.

* * *

"Let's get going!" Rick called over to them when they entered Sector 9. "Who's this?"

"Rick, this is Lance, another old friend of mine," Deets introduced them.

"Another one huh? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"No! I mean, why would you think that?" Deets cringed at her lie; she had always been a bad liar.

Rick blinked at her in confusion, but waved it off and waved them over to stand beside him. Fizz hopped up behind the control panel of her new invention and began the warm up process.

"Ready when you are!" she yelled to Rick over the loud sound of the bot whirring to life.

Rick gave her the thumbs up and she nodded. Activating the video camera that was place in the bot, she commanded it to walk over to the marked area and saw the large chalk lines in the vid. She stopped the bot and smiled, rubbing her hands together in victory, nothing could possibly go wrong—but she had spoken too soon.

"What is going on here!?"

Her running bot was shutting down without reason. She quickly tried to get the backup power to run, but that had been shut off as well. everything in her screen was blinking madly and the bots levels began to go south rather quickly. Everyone down on the ground, who had been holding their breath, began to worry and frown at the very slow moving machine as it began to shut down.

Eventually, it slumped forward without another sound, and Fizz's cursing could be heard over the silent workers.

"That was so not monkey," Loogie imputed after a moment of stunned silence.

Loogie's comment knocked Rick out of his trance and he stomped over to Fizz, demanding what was wrong.

"It just shut down!" Fizz yelled angrily back. "It's as if someone sucked the life out of it!"

"That's impossible, it was fully fueled this morning," Rick argued.

"I know!" Fizz shouted.

She pushed her way past Rick and up to her bot. She opened up a panel manually on its metal body and began to run a diagnostic.

"It's not responding to anything, and the tank is full," she said quizzically. "Only in Sector 9 could this happen!"

After she told Rick, he chose a few course words to say then turned to everyone else and explained the situation.

"The ghost of Sector 9 strikes again," someone murmured, which was not lost on Loogie.

Rick instructed everyone to leave and come back tomorrow—the bugs should be worked out of the system by then.

"What is this ghost?" Loogie asked Deets as they walked up to Rick and Fizz.

"Just some superstition going around. People have said that they've seen an entity walking around here, looking for souls to steal," Deets rolled her eyes.

Loogie gulped.

"I thought you said that this wouldn't happen?" Rick said, his anger rising.

"I said that it passed everything we threw at it," Fizz shot back, just as angry. "We didn't throw anything like this at it since things like this don't happen!"

"She's right Rick," Deets said, coming up to them. "You've only been in town for about a year. We've been here all of our lives and we know Sector 9. It's really odd about what happens here."

"Like what for example?" Rick asked.

The three knew that they couldn't say anything about it.

"Just, weird things," Deets said vaguely. "Listen Rick, why don't we go out to dinner and let Fizz fix this. I'm sure she'll be done in no time, right Fizz?"

Fizz was about to retort, but that look on Deets's face told her that she had better have the right answer and not the answer everyone doesn't want to hear.

"Sure," Fizz gritted out, "I'll be done in no time."

"Great!" Deets smiled, taking Rick and Loogie by the arms and dragging them away.

Fizz sighed and looked up at the giant robot.

"Can't I get some help getting him in the hanger?!"

* * *

Fizz worked way past midnight. It was nearly three in the morning when she finally gave up on the bot and decided to tell Rick that he would have to get the old fashioned equipment. There was no way she could get this thing running without taking it apart completely and starting over. She knew her career was ruined, Rick would make sure no one ever hired her ever again for a job.

She wrapped her coat around herself as she exited the hanger. She walked over to the area where the bot had broken down, using her light to show her the way. There was nothing suspicious about anything here. There was nothing to suggest that it was sabotage, an accident, or anything of the like. It had just randomly broken down. Fizz huffed into the cold night air and began to walk off when her light caught something.

She turned it back to the spot and saw that it caught the glittering of something in the dirt on top of the dig sight. Curious, she bent underneath the ropes that boarded the area off limits, and walked over to it. She picked up the object and stared at it.

It was a disk, about a large as her palm and a thin as a piece of paper. It was white and sky blue in design with odd symbols covering the top. Underneath, it was a complicated piece of machinery. This must have drained her bot, but what was it and why was it way out here? Someone could have thrown it, but why would they want to ruin the dig?

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice how the earth was cracking under her feet. The deep rumbled got her attention and she looked down to see the spider-web of crack decorating the ground. She gasped and made a run for it, but it was too late, as soon as she moved, the ground gave way and she fell into an endless dark hole, her light being left above ground.

* * *

**_Kind of spooky huh? I just love cliff hangers!! Don't forget to guess!!! (still insert evil laughter here) _**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Sorry it took so long, but I do write other things and school is getting tense with the end of the semester coming around. Don't expect much until Thanksgiving break. _**

* * *

_**Chapter 3—**_

Fizz moaned as the throbbing in her head reminded her that she was very much alive.

"Hey, she's coming to."

Fizz could tell that it was a woman's voice, but she couldn't tell if it was someone she knew or not. There was only one way to find out.

She opened her eyes and found an unfamiliar ceiling. The soft lighting lit up the white room, almost reminding her of a lab. Blue was accented on the walls as she turned her head to get a look around. She was lying on a table, a hard metal one. She sat up, rubbing the back of her head where she had landed after her fall. It was amazing that she didn't have a concussion.

"How do you feel?"

Fizz turned her head the other way and saw a girl, probably around her own age, looking at her inquisitively. The girl had light blue hair that hung down to her waist line, her eyes were a deep navy blue, only one was completely blue with no pupil. The girl's shirt was a deep blue as well, low cut and open long sleeves, her pants were white with a brown design sliding down the creases of each leg. She wore an odd opened toed sandal though—she made Fizz feel that she wasn't in Progress City any more. The fact was cemented home when Fizz saw that one of her hands was robotic, each finger a claw and the whirring from the hand as it flexed only made Fizz frightened.

"Don't worry," the girl said kindly when she caught Fizz staring, "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Oh really, and just how am I suppose to believe you?" Fizz asked skeptically.

"I could have done with you when we found you out cold in the tunnel," the girl put rather bluntly, and she did have a point.

Fizz huffed and jumped down from the table.

"My whole body should be broken," Fizz said when she saw that she was standing without difficulty.

"We healed you," the girl said simply. "You were in a bad state when we found you."

"How long have I been out?"

"Only for the night and half of the morning, it's almost noon."

"Okay, and who are you?"

"Annabell, but call me Bell," the girl said sweetly, extending her human hand.

Fizz took it and shook the tight grip with an expert flourish.

"You remind me of something," Fizz said, that nagging feeling of remembrance tugging at her memory.

"I often get that when people compare me to my brother," Bell said nodding.

"But, I don't think I ever met your brother," Fizz said, looking around the room again. "I don't even know where I am."

"Oh, well, that is kind of hard to explain," Bell looked reluctant to say something.

"How did I get here in the first place?"

"Oh, we heard the tunnel collapse," Bell answered, looking relieved that she could say something without incriminating herself. "We sent a few of our people down there to make sure no one was hurt. It was good that we did, you could have died from trauma and blood loss."

"Then how did I heal so quickly, there's not a scratch on me."

"Our technology is advanced compared to yours; we healed you rather quickly and with some natural remedies as well."

Fizz only blinked at her. She couldn't think of anything else to ask since it was so overwhelming to wake up in a place you never knew existed.

"Where is he?!"

Fizz jumped as the owner of the rather angry voice barged into the lab-room-thing where the two women were talking. He was tall, hair the color of red autumn leaves with a touch of orange tinge to it, his eyes were a contrasting orange color that seemed to flame up with his anger. His dress style was much the same as Bell's, only his outfit was a dark brown like the earth after a good rain and his top encircled his neck like any other collared shirt would. He also wore boots, boots that were covered in dust and what looked like soot, tracking the dirt into the room as he walked up to them.

"Chandler," Bell seemed to admonish him, "we have a guest."

"She's an over-dweller, I could really care less," the guy, Chandler, said without a glance in Fizz's direction. "I want to know where he is."

"I know you're not talking about Gabe," Bell said, but she sounded rather sarcastic. "He's probably still in bed. He was up late."

"No doubt playing cards again," Chandler growled disapprovingly.

"No, he was with the scouting mission last night when the tunnel collapsed," Bell corrected him. "He brought her in and didn't go to bed until I forced him too. He was rather worried about her for some reason."

Chandler only snorted and walked out of the room, shouting that he would go and wake up whoever it was that they were talking about.

"Your brother?" Fizz asked.

"One of them," Bell nodded. "There's Chandler, Gabe, and—"

"ED!!"

Fizz jumped at the sudden shout from down the hall. There was a loud thump, sounding vaguely like a body smacking the floor after being tossed out of bed.

"I'm going to kill you Chandler!" yelled a new voice.

The scuffle of feet sounded as they ran down the hall and back into the room where Fizz and Bell were still standing. Fizz watched as Chandler chased a very familiar blue-eyed, blue-haired guy around the room. Bell only shook her head and rolled her eyes at them.

"Must we go through this every morning?" she asked them as Chandler cornered the other guy behind a large medical device of some sort.

"It helps me stay in shape," Chandler protested as he dived for the guy.

Said guy did a double flip over his brother's head and landed safely on the other side of Chandler.

"And it keeps me on my toes," the blue-haired guy smiled. "Plus Chandler needs the practice."

Chandler only growled as he picked himself up from the floor and turned towards his brother.

"One of these days I'm going to get you sprout," he growled.

"But you got stuff to do, right?" the guy asked, with an air that said he knew it was true, and yet not at the same time.

Chandler huffed and stalked out of the room, glaring at the guy before he left.

"Ed, you know he will kill you one of these days," Bell warned him.

"Yeah, but that's a long way into the future."

"Ed?"

The guy turned towards Fizz at hearing his name. He was lost for words for a moment, but eventually, he smiled at her with a welcoming grin.

"Hey Fizz, it's been a while," he said, but he sounded uncertain if he should have said anything.

Fizz walked up to him, looking like she had just seen a ghost. She stared into his eyes, since she knew only Ed could hold a child-like innocence like this guy was. Then she did something rather unexpected—she slapped him.

"Ow," Ed mumbled as he rubbed his sore cheek.

"That's for leaving without saying a word," Fizz said angrily, then she hugged him tightly, crushing his ribcage and making him suffocate. "And that was for saving me last night," she said much more sweetly.

"You're, welcome," he choked out. "Can you let go of me now?"

"Just a minute longer."

"Well, it seems you two need to catch up," Bell said after they had let go of each other. "Why don't you show her around Ed and treat her to breakfast? I've got some stuff to do here and then I'll join you later."

"Sounds good, and thanks for the day off Bell," Ed said, grabbing Fizz's hand and leading her out of the room.

"What's going on? Where are we Ed?" Fizz asked as Ed led the way to—somewhere else. "And how can they be your siblings?"

"Food first, then I'll explain everything," Ed said as he pressed a few buttons on a consol by a door.

The metal entrance swished open and they both walked through. It was a very metallic dining room; metallic in the sense that it looked identical to the other room—a medical bay from all of the talk earlier—in almost every aspect. The only thing different here was the furniture, one area rug that was designed like the tiles, and a few plants here and there that occupied empty corners.

"Take a seat Fizz," Ed gestured to one of the chairs at the table, "H.O.M. E. will get us our food in a minute."

"What home?" Fizz asked.

"It's an acronym, H. O. M. E. It stands for Helpful Optic Matinence Evaluator. Basically, H. O. M. E. is the maid of the place."

A hologram popped up in the middle of the table when Ed took his seat and he smiled over at the image as if it was an old friend. It had the makeup of an obese woman with a dirty apron around her paunchy middle and grey hair tucked up into a bun.

"What can I do for you dear?" it asked Ed sweetly, almost like a grandmother.

"A couple of breakfast dishes H, we have a guest who happens to be an old friend of mine," Ed informed it.

"It will be out right away," the hologram informed them then it dissipated back into the components of the table.

"Ed," Fizz grabbed his attention again, "where are we?"

"About two thousand feet under Progress City," he said simply while Fizz gapped.

"How is that possible?" she asked him.

"Fizz, what I'm about to say is really going to shock you, so maybe I'll tell you from the beginning—and that is a very long time ago."


End file.
